Ugly
by Forced Simile
Summary: “Isn’t it obvious? I’m an assassin, my looks are a shell, beauty makes people want to trust me. It makes it that much easier to kill and to deceive. If I’m not gorgeous, I can’t do my job efficiently. I’m useless.” Ino.Chouji


I wrote this ages ago. I think I'll just post this and see what you guys think. It takes place much later in the future, and stuff and is just a conversation between Ino and Chouji about being pretty and such...

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**Ugly**

By Forced Simile

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Ino was indeed beautiful. She was beautiful as she accepted the mission to assassinate and gather secrets from a clan in another country. She used her looks to gain the trust of the young son of the clan leader. She dazzled her way into the hearts of its elders. She charmed her way into the son's heart. Ino used her beauty the same way she used her ninjutsu to take over son's body and kill all the clan elders and their leader. Taking poison while using her "lover's" body, she could hear his consciousness protesting all the while. As she returned to her own body, the darling son, the man whom she had pretended to love gazed up at her coldly. The poison racked his body and his eyes were blank. Ino stared back equally as blank.

"You…deceived me…I hate you, you damn, ugly bitch…" he snarled. With that he died. Ino was immune to the words for sometime, she didn't care. Every assassination she did ended this way. She had spent years in one spot, pretending to care for people, pretending to love, and then killing, deceiving and destroying. She didn't feel that people mattered much anymore. Ino found herself sworn to Konoha in ways she hadn't anticipated when she became a genin. Love, men, looks it didn't matter. Her beauty was a weapon, love was a trap. If her beauty was a tool, then was she in reality ugly?

If she were truly ugly, then if she stopped looking flawless she would be a useless kunoichi. Her purpose would be lost. To keep her purpose, Ino would spend long hours taking care of her looks, preening and smoothing and touching up. Her team was a little worried about her. Ino was empty, her obsession with her looks was rather unhealthy. Shikamaru, having the most seniority in the group was going to talk with her, but he was given a mission. He asked Chouji to just talk with her, to try and draw her out.

Chouji wasn't too thrilled with the prospect. Ino was always one to comment on people's looks, usually pointing out the flaws. When would she get that he didn't care about his looks and that he cared even less about how others looked. He and Ino were to meet at Shikamaru's cloud watching spot. Chouji wasn't entirely surprised to see her fixing her hair in her compact mirror. The portly boy sighed and sat next to her.

"Hey, Chouji," she said, not taking her eyes off of her reflection. Chouji was already slightly annoyed and he took out his bag of chips.

"You and I are always training," she said as she snapped her mirror case shut. "You're eating to create chakra, and I'm making myself beautiful so I can be of use to Konoha."

Chouji was a little confused by the last statement, "What does you being beautiful have to do with your usefulness?"

Ino tossed her hair and sighed, "Isn't it obvious? I'm an assassin, my looks are a shell, beauty makes people _want_ to trust me. It makes it that much easier to kill and to deceive. If I'm not gorgeous, I can't do my job efficiently. I'm useless."

Chouji was a little afraid. How did Ino, the pretentious prima donna that she was when she was twelve, evolve into this callous view of herself now at twenty four? Her judgment of physical appearance was all directed toward herself.

"True beauty lies within, you know," Chouji said. Ino jumped at those words. She was all surface and nothing underneath. Ino knew she had sacrificed inner radiance for her outer. She had sacrificed herself for Konoha. The blonde was a tool, a person who deceived, lied, pretended and hurt people on behalf of others. She pretended to care for people for the sake of people she really loved. Did they love her? Was she destined to treat them the same way she treated her victims? She looked down at her lap and fought back tears. Tears would make her mascara run.

"Chouji…" she said weakly, "Am I beautiful to you?"

The boy gazed at her curiously. Ino's shoulders trembled slightly. Chouji looked down inside his bag of chips. There was one left, and he knew he was free to do whatever he wanted with it. He reached in and held it to Ino. She looked at him wide eyed; if Chouji was giving her his last chip, then he definitely valued her in some way. Ino took it and chewed slowly. The tears fell from her eyes against her will.

The two teammates sat on the terrace, Ino's mascara left dark stains on her cheeks. However, as her tears continued to come, she was comforted by the fact that Chouji didn't feel the need to tell her about how awful she looked: about how her hair was falling out of place, her cheeks and nose were turning red and puffy. All she got was an arm around her shoulder and an understanding smile.

So maybe, even without all the preening…she was beautiful after all. Lovely enough to be valued by someone. The veil that separated her from the others she really loved was still there, but she was ready to change, to preserve the beauty that mattered.

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Please review if you are so inclined.


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